present scene opens, Captain Cuffe, in fact, had been called on board the Foudroyant, by signal, where he had found a small, sallow-looking, slightly-built man, with his right arm wanting, pacing the deck of the fore-cabin, impatient for his appearance.

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Well, Cuffe," said this uninviting-looking personɛge, twitching the stump of the maimed arm, "I see you are out of the flock; are you all ready for sailing?"

"We have one boat ashore, after letters, my lord; as soon as she comes off, we shall lift our anchor, which is only under-foot."

"Very well-I have sent the Ringdove to the southward, on the same errand, and I see she is half-a-league from the anchorage, on her way, already. This Mr. Griffin appears to be a fine young man-I like his account of the way he handled his fire-ship; though the French scoundrel did contrive to escape! After all, this Rowl E-E- how do you pronounce the fellow's name, Cuffe?-I never can make anything out of their gibberish-"

"Why, to own the truth, Sir Horatio-I beg pardon-my lord there is something in the English grain of my feelings. that would prevent my ever learning French, had I been born and brought up in Paris. There is too much Saxon in me, to swallow words that half the time have no meaning." "I like you all the better, for that, Cuffe," answered the admiral, smiling, a change that converted a countenance that was almost ugly, when in a state of rest, into one that was almost handsome-a peculiarity that is by no means of rare occurrence, when a strong will gives the expression to the features, and the heart, at bottom, is really sound. Englishman has no business with any Gallic tendencies. This young Mr. Griffin seems to have spirit; and I look upon it, always, as a good sign, when a young man volunteers for a desperate thing of this sort-but, he tells me, he is only second; where was your first, all the while?"

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"An

Why, my lord, he got a little hurt in the brush of the morning; and I would not let him go, as a matter of course. His name is Winchester; I think you must remember him, as junior of the Captain, at the affair off St. Vincent. Miller*

* Ralph Willet Miller, the officer who commanded the ship to which Nelson shifted his pennant, at the battle of Cape St. Vincent. This

had a good opinion of him; and, when I went from the Arrow to the Proserpine, he got him sent as my second. The death of poor Drury made him first, in the natural way.'

"I have some recollection of him, Cuffe.-That was a brilliant day, and all its events should be impressed on my mind. You tell me, Mr. Griffin fairly grappled the lugger's cable?"

"Of that there can be no manner of doubt.-I saw the two vessels foul of each other, with my night-glass — and, seemingly, both were on fire-as plainly as I ever saw Vesuvius, in a dark night."

"And yet this Few-Folly has escaped!-Poor Griffin has run a desperate risk, for little purpose."

"He has, indeed, my lord."

Here, Nelson, who had been pacing the cabin with quick steps, while Cuffe stood, respectfully declining the gesture to be seated, at the table in its centre, suddenly stopped, and looked the Captain steadily in the face. The expression of his countenance was now mild and earnest, and the pause which preceded his words, gave the latter solemnity and weight.

"The day will come, Cuffe," he said, "when this young man will rejoice that his design on these picaroons, Frenchmen as they are, failed. Yes, from the bottom of his heart, will he be glad."

6

My lord!"

"I know you think this strange, Captain Cuffe; but no man sleeps the sounder for having burnt or blown up a hundred of his fellow-creatures, like so many widows at a suttee. But we are not the less to commend those who did what was certainly their duty."

"Am I to understand, Lord Nelson, that the Proserpine is not to destroy the Few-Folly, at every hazard, should we again have the luck to fall in with her?"

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"By no means, sir. Our orders are to burn, sink and

gentleman was an American, and a native Manhattanese; his near relatives, of the same name, still residing in New York. It is believed that he got the name of Willet from the first English mayor; a gentleman from whom are descended many of the old families of the lower part of the state; more particulary those on Long-Island.

destroy. Such is England's policy, in this desperate war, and it must be carried out. You know what we are contending for, as well as I do; and it is a struggle that is not to be carried on with courtesies; still, one would not wish to see a glorious and sacred cause tarnished by inhumanity. Men that fall in fair, manly combat, are to be envied rather than pitied, since it is only paying the great debt of nature a little sooner than might otherwise have happened; but there is something revolting to humanity, in burning up our fellow-creatures, as one would burn rags, after the plague. Nevertheless, this lugger must be had, at any price; for English commerce and English power are not to be cut up and braved, in this audacious manner, with impunity. The career of these French tigers must be stopped, at every sacrifice, Captain Cuffe."

"I know that, my lord; and I like a republican as little as you can do; or His Majesty, himself, for that matter; and, I take it, he has as little relish for the animal as flesh and blood can give."

"I know you do, Cuffe—I'm sure you do; and I esteem you all the more for it. It is a part of an Englishman's religion, in times like these, to hate a Frenchman. I went across the Channel, after the peace of '83, to learn their language, but had so little sympathy with them, even in peaceable times, as never to be able to make out to write a letter in it, or even to ask intelligibly for the necessaries of life."

"If you can ask for anything, it far surpasses my efforts; I never can tell head from stern, in their dialect."

"It is an infernal jargon, Cuffe, and has got to be so confused by their academies, and false philosophy, and infidelity, that they will shortly be at a loss to understand it themselves. What sort of names they give their ships, for instance, now they have beheaded their king, and denounced their God!-Who ever heard of christening a craft, as you tell me this lugger is named, the Few-Folly?—I believe I've got the picaroon's title right?"

"Quite right-Griffin pronounces it so, though he has got to be a little queerish, in his own English, by using so much French and Italian. The young man's father was a consul; and he has half-a-dozen foreign lingos stowed away

in his brain. He pronounces Folly, something broadishlike Follay, I believe but it means all the same thing. Folly is folly, pronounce it as you will."

Nelson continued to pace his cabin, working the stump of his arm, and smiling half-bitterly; half in a sort of irony that inclined him to be in a good-humour with himself.

"Do you remember the ship, Cuffe, we had that sharp brush with, off Toulon, in old Agamemnon?" he said, after making a turn or two, in silence? "I mean the dismasted eighty-four, that was in tow of the frigate, and which we peppered until their Gallic soup had some taste to it! Now, do you happen to know her real name, in good honest English?"

"I do not, my lord. I remember, they said she was called the Ca Ira; and I always supposed that it was the name of some old Greek or Roman-or, perhaps, of one of their new-fangled republican saints."

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'They !—D-n 'em, they 've got no saints, to name, my good fellow, since they cashiered all the old ones! There is something respectable in the names of a Spanish fleet; and one feels that he is flogging gentlemen, at least, while he is at work on them. No, sir, Ca Ira means, neither more nor less, than That'll Do ;' and, I fancy, Cuffe, they thought of their own name more than once, while the old Greek was hanging on their quarter, smashing their cabinwindows for them! A pretty sound it would have been, had we got her, and put her into our own service-His Majesty's ship That'll Do,' 84, Captain Cuffe!"

"I certainly should have petitioned my Lords Commissioners to change her name.'

6

"You would have done quite right.-A man might as well sail in a man-of-war called the Enough.' Then, there was the three-decker, that helped her out of the scrape, the Sans-Culottes, as the French call her;-I suppose, you know what that means?"

"Not I, my lord; to own the truth, I'm no scholar; and am entirely without ambition, in that way. 'Sans,' I suppose, is the French for saint;' but who 'Culottes' was, I've not the least notion."

6

Nelson smiled, and the turn the conversation had taken appeared to give him secret satisfaction. If the truth were

known, something lay heavily on his mind; and, with one of his strong impulses, his feelings disposed him to rush from one extreme to the other, as is often the case, with men who are controlled by such masters; more especially, if their general disposition is to the right.

“You're wrong, this time, my dear Cuffe," he said; "for 'sans,' means 'without,' in French, and culottes,' means 'breeches.' Think of naming a three-decker, the 'Without Breeches!' I do not see how any respectable flag-officer can mention such names, in his despatches, without a feeling of awkwardness, that must come near to capsizing all his philosophy. The line was formed by the Republic's ship, the That'll Do,' leading, supported by the Without Breeches,' as her second astern!--Ha! Cuffe-D―e, sir, if I'd serve in a marine, that had such names to the ships! It's a thousand times worse, than all those saints, the Spaniards tack on to their vessels-like a line of boats, towing a ship up to her moorings!"

Here the conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a midshipman, who came down to say that a man and a woman, from the shore, wished to see the rear-admiral, on pressing business.

"Let them come down, sir," answered Nelson; "I've a hard life of it, Cuffe; there is not a washerwoman, or a shopkeeper, in Naples, who does not treat me exactly as if I were a podestâ, and it were my duty to hear all the contentions about lost clothes, and mislaid goods. His Majesty must appoint a Lord Chief Justice of the Steerage, to admin. ister the law, for the benefit of the young gentlemen, or he'll soon get no officer to serve, with a flag at his mast-head." "Surely, my lord, the captains can take this weight off your shoulders!"

"Ay, there are men, in the fleet, that can, and there are men who do; but there are men who do not. But here comes the plaintiff, I suppose-you shall hear the case, and act as a puisne judge, in the matter."

This was said as the cabin-door opened, and the expected guests entered. They were, a man turned of fifty, and a girl of nineteen. The former was a person of plain exterior, abstracted air, and downcast look; but the latter had all the expression, beauty, nature, and grace of mien, that so